We are looking for a hosted e-commerce solution which integrates to Baan IV ERP. The integration doesn't have to be real time, a batch mode would be sufficient. BOIs are enabled and we already use e-sales with very specific customers(Distributors) but it is too old and no plans to touch that area.

I am looking for companies who implemented this kind of integration and perhaps share your experience and/or recommend any products/services you have experienced.

We are on windows plat form with informix as database.

Thanks
Dan

There are a lot of possibilities... .

We are using Seeburger as external EDI system for the communication with webshops and platforms and OpenWorld for the communication with Baan. OW fills up only interface tables. The creation of the orders in Baan is done by jobs (program creates the orders using AFS).

For filling the data in the interface tables OW is not required, you can use every program that is able to communicate with your database (in our case OW for historical reasons)

Advantage:

• very fast because you can run many jobs the same time (we have up to 14)

• If something crashes only one order is broken and you can correct the data in the interface table i.e. by a Baan session. The job picks up the order again then next time (or you start the creation manually).

• Only one program for order entry. So all customisations there are available for manual and automatic oder entry

• If you upgrade your Baan you only have to change the creation program (i.e. from AFS to DAL)

Disadvantage

• Not "out of the box". You have to program it by yourself.

Transfering data (items, prices, stocks (?) and so on) to the webshops is more complicate... . Especially the extraction of the data from Baan. But this can be done by an external program which reads the database directly. For the outgoing communication to the shops we are using Seeburger again.

hth

Regards
Christof

Thanks Christof for your valuable insight. I haven't see at least one product where it interacts with Baan paramter/plug-in driven. I am now looking into upgrading Baan e-sales installation which is 7-8 years old.

-Dan